THE GREAT WALL is a visually beautiful film to look at with all the detail that went into the costumes, weapons, and production design.   Some of the visual effects work is impressive.  The action moves along and the movie is a mix of English and Chinese language.  It isn’t a bad movie, but it doesn’t match the best movies directed by Zhang Yimou like HERO or THE HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS.   It is a Chinese action film made for Western audiences while also being accessible to China.    It is West meets East as two surviving soldiers, William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal), are searching for the explosive gunpowder in China.  They come across the Nameless Order who protects China on the Great Wall of China from the monster horde of the Taotei.  Wiliam and Tovar get swept up in fighting with the army which includes a female commander (Jing Tian).

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Eight deleted and extended scenes which features material cut for pacing reasons

 

Several short featurettes are also included:

MATT DEMON IN CHINA-

WORKING WITH DIRECTOR ZHANG YIMOU- cast and crew praise working with the director

THE GREAT WALL VISUAL EFFECTS- a quick vfx featurette

MAN VS. MONSTER is a series of three featurettes that talk about and go behind-the-scenes of the three battles in the move and why the director felt each battle needed to be different including how the change of location for the third battle changed the ending

WEAPONS OF WAR- a look at the weapon design of THE GREAT WALL

DESIGNING A SPECTACULAR WORLD- production design and costume design

 

 

Also in the combo pack is a code for a digital HD copy of THE GREAT WALL and the movie in standard definition on DVD

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  THE GREAT WALL is entertaining enough for one viewing as a rental due to the great production design and action sequences, but the script could have been a little more developed.

 

This review is ©5-27-2017 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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